‘Let us die’: Rio favela residents demand answers after sweep | Gun Violence News

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Monica Cunha felt she had to talk. The activist therefore joined another group of mothers — all of whom had been lost in recent years as a result of violence by the Brazilian state — to denounce the brutality of Rio de Janeiro. the deadliest police operation in the register.

“We are disgusted,” said Cunha, who is still living with the scars of losing his son in a police raid 15 years ago after the violence in Jacarezinho’s favela last week. “I haven’t seen any protests on this scale in 15 years over teen murders. These boys are human beings; they have a name and a surname. We say no to these killings. “

A rally at the entrance to Jacarezinho on Friday morning was held among the crowd of about 100 activists who shouted “Let us die!” Placing banners. Less than 24 hours earlier, a poor and wide favela shooting broke out.

Dozens of civilian and federal police officers entered the northern district in an operation aimed at drug traffickers. Neighbors complained that they felt terrorized and trapped when grenades exploded in the streets and helicopters were circulating over red-brick houses during the long-running operation. It caused 28 deaths – mostly young men.

However COVID-19 furious pandemicon Friday night, thousands of human rights activists and youths took the subway to Jacarezino, 18 kilometers (11 kilometers) from the iconic Copacabana beach in Rio, to denounce the violence and end police impunity. The crowded streets were lit by candles. “Leave the massacre in the favelas!” people shouted.

Identifying bodies

After identifying a 48-year-old policeman killed in the operation, Rio police publicly released the identities of 27 other people killed on Saturday. Rio de Janeiro’s state police and state prosecutor’s office say the operation was carried out “without error” after intelligence investigations revealed they had hired children and teenagers to join the Comando Vermelho drug faction, the main favela.

Civilian police said in a statement Thursday that they had 21 arrest warrants for “alleged criminals”.

The Rio de Janeiro State Human Rights Commission (OAB-RJ), an independent and judicial commission, told Al Jazeera that the families of the favela had identified the bodies of 16 people killed in a police attack on Friday before police revealed their names. among the dead. They were men between the ages of 18 and 34.

Commission Chairman Alvaro Quintao said more bodies arrived later Friday afternoon.

“Police arrested six youths and shot them to death on the list of suspects, but at least 13 of the dead had nothing to do with the original investigation,” Quintao said. “We can already say for sure that not all of them were criminals. Some on the list had committed crimes before but were already serving their sentences. “

Photos taken by neighbors and shared with Al Jazeera showed police carrying the bodies. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights he said On Friday, he received “alarming reports that the police did not take steps to store evidence at the crime scene after the incident,” which could have hampered investigations into the deadly operation.

The government’s response

Police have denied wrongdoing or “execution-style killings” – as have human rights groups supposed – In the Jacarezinho operation. They say they were acting in self-defense.

Brazilian government officials, including Vice President Hamilton Mourao, have stressed that the dead were “all criminals” – without providing any evidence or specifying the crimes committed. “Unfortunately, these gangs of drug traffickers are real narcotics guerrillas, they have control over certain sites,” Mourao said Friday.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said last year that criminals were to be killed “like cockroaches” when five rifles, machine guns, two shotguns and six grenades were posted on social media on Friday. He said what he defends criminals is “vagrancy”.

Neighbors, human rights activists and criminal lawyers say the delay in spreading the names of the victims suggested that police were aware that not all the dead were criminals.

“There is no death penalty in Brazil. Despite the suspicions, the police cannot decide who lives and who dies. They have yet to be tried, ”said Renata Sousa, a deputy from the state legislature of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj), who works on a special commission that investigates extreme poverty.

The state Ministry of Public Affairs said in a statement on Thursday night that it would investigate allegations of abuse and begin a criminal investigation through the Rio de Janeiro prosecutor’s office. But the UN has called for an independent investigation and criticized the force in Rio’s police operations as “unnecessary and disproportionate”.

‘A massacre’

Bruno Fernandes, a criminal lawyer and professor at Rio de Janeiro State University, told Al Jazeera that the focus of the investigation is likely on the context of the operations and which police were involved in the deaths.

Fernandes said deaths in police operations are justified if the lives of police or civilians are in immediate danger. But he said it is illegal to shoot unarmed people or anyone who has opened fire.

Favela residents and local media said that despite the shootings, many of the dead were trying to escape, were unarmed, tried to surrender and were shot inside the house.

“Many residents said some young people tried to negotiate and give themselves up, but they were shot anyway. Others were taken to the families’ homes and shot. There were puddles of blood. It was a massacre,” Sousa said.

Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Edson Fachin has also expressed concern about the violence.

In a letter to the public prosecutor on Friday, Fachin said a video of the police operation showed “arbitrary execution.” The judge said he must continue to be aware of the investigation so that those responsible can be held accountable.

An armored policeman was released on May 6 in the Jacarezinho favela in Rio de Janeiro during an operation against suspected drug traffickers [File: Silvia Izquierdo/Reuters]

Although Fachin decided to kill the network in June 2020, it banned police operations in the favelas during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ban includes a ban on the use of helicopters, “in absolutely exceptional circumstances.”

According to a report by a Ceni research group at the Federal University of Fleniens (UFF), favela attacks fell by 70% in the first two months after Fachin’s order, but rose again in October.

Activists have blamed Rio de Janeiro State Governor Claudio Castro, who took office that month, after appointing a new civilian police commissioner in Rio. Allan Turnowski, in one of his first interviews, said he would not respect the ban and advocated the use of tanks in favelas.

‘Invisible’ deaths

For residents and activists, Jacarezinho’s bloody incidents are just one example of the many “invisible” deaths caused by the riots by Rio’s police forces – the most violent in the world.

Fogo Cruz, a technology company that controls police violence, has reported that more than 1,000 people have been killed in 275 police attacks in the state of Rio de Janeiro in the past five years. The Institute of Public Safety, the state investigative body, found that one death occurred in 1998 as a result of state police clashes since 1998, but that the police rarely take responsibility.

In the state of Rio de Janeiro, which examined 220 investigations into police killings in 2011, 183 of those probes found in the 2015 Amnesty International report were still four years later.

However, residents and activists hope that international pressure will bring justice to the families of Jacarezinho’s young men – and take steps to address Rio’s chronic violence and public safety crisis.

“How can an operation that ends in the massacre of 28 people be considered a success,” asked local activist Cunha.

Neighbors take bloody photos on the street after Jacarezinhor’s police operation [Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo]